Tales from the Coffeeshop: Mixed messages for Cyprus corridors
WHO WOULD have thought that instead of the much-trumpeted humanitarian sea corridor, which is still cooking, our Kyproulla would be used for a non-humanitarian air corridor, without our Kyproulla even being able to take credit for it. If anything, it could land the pylon of stability in a spot of bother.
Declassified UK, a news website that claims “to uncover the UK’s role in the world,” reported on Friday that “the US is moving arms to Israel from around Europe using Britain’s vast air base on Cyprus.” It added that “Britain’s Cyprus base has become an international military hub supporting Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.”
American weapons and equipment were being flown into Akrotiri from US bases in Turkey, Spain and Germany and then to Israel. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that over 40 US transport aircraft and 20 UK transport aircraft have flown to Akrotiri carrying equipment, arms and forces.
This must be a bit of an embarrassment for Prez Nik, after his tireless efforts to establish a sea corridor for humanitarian aid. Instead, the centre of the universe is being used for an arms air corridor to Israel, which undoubtedly will cause delays to the opening of the sea corridor the Prez had in mind.
ASKED on Saturday morning about the Declassified UK report, Prez Nik said, “such information does not exist, our country cannot be used as a staging post for military operations.”
This was a smart diplomatic answer, that did not deny the veracity of the report. That no such information exists does not mean this is not happening. The Brits and the Yanks may have chosen not to inform the government about the cargo of the planes flying to Israel.
And he was absolutely right to assert that our country cannot be used as a staging post for military operations, because it is not; and nobody said it was. It was just being used as a big arms depot to supply, through an air corridor, guns and equipment for military operations in Gaza.
And for good measure, he mentioned the evacuation of people from Israel during which “our country was utilised by both the British and the Americans with whom we have a very good cooperation.” They just did not inform him that they were using Kyproulla to supply arms to Israel so as not to upset him, knowing his priority is humanitarian aid.
THE REACTION to the ICIJ reports about the Russian oligarchs being helped to hide their money by our professional service providers turned out to be a tad masochistic, with many people, including officials, complaining that their content was not powerful enough.
It was as if we were telling the journalists, “hit me harder, I enjoy it.” It was rehashed, old news, was the verdict of the local commentariat, which wanted to read more about sanctions-busting and money laundering, aided and abetted by professional service providers.
The Prez did not take this line, coming up with a new meaningless soundbite which he uttered at every opportunity, because it sounded authoritative. “Nobody is above the reputation of our country,” he kept on saying, without mentioning who he was referring to.
He also said that criminal investigations were in progress. His lieutenants, however, were not on the same wavelength. Asked whether PWC, which was at the centre of sanctions-busting allegations, was the subject of a criminal investigation, Finance Minister Makis Keravnos said an investigation was taking place on orders from the finance ministry.
Asked the same question on the same day, finance ministry perm sec Giorgos Panteli said the finance ministry was investigating some suspected violations of EU sanctions, but these investigations were not related to the PWC audit office. Go figure.
POOR old Makis looked like a broken man when he faced hacks after Wednesday’s council of ministers meeting. Had the ICIJ revelations hurt him so much? Had he expected he would have a joy ride when appointed finance minister and is disappointed with the real deal?
He also came up with an enigmatic quote. “Beyond legality and legislation, there is something that is called morality, something that we must take particular note of in this country,” he said. What did he mean? Was he following his boss’ example of making serious-sounding statements that are meaningless?
A VERY good point was made in an editorial in Business News regarding the ICIJ revelations, which it dismissed as hypocritical and an attempt to demonise professional service providers of Cyprus, many of whom are its advertisers.
It asked the following question: “Is there anyone, some country, that until 2022, did not want as its client, for example, Roman Abramovich? Perhaps England, where he bought one of the country’s biggest football clubs, Chelsea, or where he bought – in London – one of the most expensive houses?”
Speaking of Abramovich, something good could still come out of the Cyprus Confidential files as they revealed the secret payments he was making on behalf of Chelski through shell companies and not entering these in the club’s accounts. This was a violation of the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play rules that could lead to Chelsea having points docked or if there is a God above being sent to the Championship.
I LOVED the moral outrage expressed by CyBC presenter Athina Violari when covering the story on her radio show of a top-ranking civil servant allegedly slapping her subordinate.
“Bullying at work is a very serious offence. Violence, verbal or physical, is inconceivable at a service at which managers are educated people, with experience; slapping a subordinate, we consider unacceptable and a phenomenon that must be eliminated from today’s society,” she pontificated.
Is slapping subordinates a widespread phenomenon which needs to be eliminated? She was pontificating about a single case, which most probably was fake news. She made no attempt to contact the senior parasite who allegedly administered the corporal punishment.
I can’t help thinking, however, that slapping public parasites, who are lazy, unmotivated, incompetent cannot be such a bad thing. A smacked bottom for the lazy is probably the only way to improve productivity in the public sector.
WHAT a shame that corporal punishment has been banned from our schools because all those foolish kids that left their schools on Friday and went to protest outside the US embassy to mark the 50th anniversary of the polytechnic uprising in Greece deserved a good smacking.
The worrying thing is that there are still brainwashed teenage Akelites in our schools (there were not that many at the demo) obeying party orders and going to the US embassy after leaving school instead of going to a café downtown. You have to feel sorry for kids that get a chance to leave school and end up wasting their time at a demo because Akel told them the bad Yanks were to blame for all our woes, including saving Greece from communism in 1945.
A LETTER, from an anonymous source, which was sent to our establishment by mail informed us that Hellenic Bank’s former CEO Oliver Gatzke, who is currently on gardening leave, had tried to scam the authorities.
The anonymous letter, titled ‘The suckers of Hellenic and the German,’ claimed that Gatzke had brought his Land Rover from Germany, told the authorities it was out of circulation so as not to pay road tax, but was then caught using it by the police. The story appeared in last Sunday’s Politis, but it seems the paper may have been duped because this smacks of fake news.
The writer slammed the “morons of Hellenic who knew (that their CEO committed a scam/fraud) but are still paying him €30,000 a month.” This seems like a lame attempt by someone at the bank to find an excuse to stop paying the German, whose contract does not expire until the end of next June, a whopping 30 grand a month.
If he was guilty of any wrongdoing the police would have charged him by now.
STAYING on the subject of banks, bank employees’ union Etyk submitted its demands for the renewal of the collective agreement that expired at the end of 2022.
It wants a four-day week during the summer months, CoLA to be restored to 100 per cent, payment of a 14th salary at Easter, increase of the basic salary by €42, improvement of the terms of loans and an increase of bank contributions to the workers’ pension fund.
Bank employees make public parasites seem like selfless volunteer workers by comparison.
ANYONE who feared that all the fuss our Prez has been making about the appointment of an EU personality as UN special envoy and the resumption of the talks from where they left off indicated he was interested in a settlement should stop worrying.
Speaking to a patriotic audience last Sunday, he said “I know very well the limits of the honourable compromise that we are seeking, and I will not consent to a settlement for the sake of a settlement.” Would he consent to a settlement for the sake of his re-election? I suspect he would.